The Hunt A Painkiller Jane Story
by giftofamber
Summary: Jane encounters a new Neuro who has abilities that hit a little too close to home.


A/N: This is a one shot originally written for a Painkiller Jane contest. Hope you like it.

The Hunt

Gunfire sounded behind him as he raced for freedom. _Just 3 more feet, and over the electric fence, and I am out of this hell-hole, _he thought to himself. _Gives new meaning to the phrase 'running for your life'. _The shrill alarm bells began ringing, indicating that more guards--and more guns--would be on the way. _So much for a nice, quiet escape; then again, I've always loved pageantry._

"Stop with your hands up, and you won't be harmed," a nondescript voice came over a bullhorn. He laughed to himself, _All they want is an easy target. What the...OW..._he winced in pain. A bullet had entered his leg, but he continued on. Moments later, he heard the popping noise of his body rejecting the bullet, and the pain stopped. The electric fence would be more of a challenge, especially since it was currently in the 'on' position. Jumping such that both feet were off the ground when he touched the wire, he began to climb quickly--doing his best to stay off of the ground. He was mostly successful; only enduring a few small shocks, _Thank goodness whoever they found to ground the wire didn't know what he or she was doing._

The guards initially looked to him as though they were going to give chase, but to his surprise, the shots ceased followed by the sounding of a retreat order. As he disappeared into the night, he wondered why his escape had been so easy and what the authorities could be planning.

--

"Sometimes to get a job done right, you have to disobey orders--no matter how much you respect the person giving those orders. But, if at the end of the day, the Neuro gets chipped, have you really disobeyed orders? Hi, I'm Jane Vasco, and I think about these things--especially when I have to explain my actions to my boss, Andre McBride. See, we work for a secret government agency whose job it is to hunt down Neuros; what is a Neuro, you ask? The definition gets broader every day," Jane said into her mini-tape recorder, which had become her personal journal.

Jane arrived at headquarters knowing that she was likely to receive a lecture. The chipping of the last Neuro hadn't exactly gone as planned. To be perfectly truthful, it never did. An old saying went "a battle plan never survives contact with the enemy". Yet, Andre always wanted everything to be by the book. _A recipe for disaster if you ask me, _she thought. _Not that the rest of my morning was much better; Brian mentioning that he was going to go to Texas on a business trip when he knows that we were supposed to be going on our own little vacation._

Andre hung up the phone just as Jane entered the room. "Nice of you to join us. It appears we have a newly discovered Neuro who just escaped from prison. His name is Hal Ketonov; he's in his mid 40s, former policeman--before he went nuts and killed a few members of his precinct. Pretty cut and dry. Except for reports of an abnormally healed bullet wound and little to no effects from an electric fence designed to shock escaping prisoners."

"A healer, just like..." Connor started.

"Finish that sentence, and you'll find a bullet in your own leg," Jane retorted. "Riley, what you got?"

"A picture from when he was arrested of course...and he's got a daughter and granddaughter living at 108 Cherry Lane; yep, there's the dot," Riley smiled. "Should be an easy catch."

"Riley, what would we do without our favorite techie? 108 Cherry Lane. Let's go," Jane always thought that Riley enjoyed lording his computer knowledge over the rest of the group way too much, but then, he didn't get to physically hit the Neuros himself. _He has to assert his manhood somehow, _she supposed.

"Jane, you aren't going anywhere. You get to sit this one out. You heard Riley: it should be an easy catch," Andre insisted. "I'm benching you for what happened last time."

"This guy deals with pain just like I do, plus he's got background knowledge of how to hit people. Are you saying if you had to catch me, I'd be an easy catch?" Jane argued.

"No one is saying you are easy anything Jane," Connor was happy to provide the wake-up call. "But this guy is also nuts, which should make him less careful and easier to catch than you."

"Easier is not the same as easy, and Andre, you know I should be on this case. I can think the way he does."

Andre thought for a second, running his fingers through his silver hair. "Alright, we could use you since you seem to want this badly enough. You'll play backup to Connor, and no misbehaving like last time or that 40 foot drop out of Vonotek won't even compare to what I will put you through."

"Thank you! You won't be sorry," Jane clicked her pistol into place after checking that it contained a chip. She wasn't taking any chances.

"I already am," Andre shook his head. "What are you all waiting for? Move out."

--

"He's the only one there, and he's just inside the door," Riley's voice came over her headset. _Gotta love state of the art technology, _Jane nodded to Connor; they'd done this a hundred times before. This time she would provide the punching bag, and he would do the chipping.

Connor spoke into the mic, "We're going in." He kicked open the door. "Mr. Ketonov, you are under arrest. Put your hands up, and we won't harm you."

Hal, still wearing his orange jumpsuit--he'd only been free a few hours at most, chose to run instead. _I knew they'd come for me, but I had to see my little girl. Besides, even if they catch me, I can always get away again, _he reasoned to himself.

Jane was prepared for this and tackled him before he had a chance to get far. She disabled him quickly; he may have been a trained police officer, but he had been out of practice for a while and just a bit out of shape. Still, something wasn't right. He'd given up way too easily.

Connor did the chipping, "All done, boss. Another one set to go to NICO."

Out of the corner of her eye, Jane saw something she had never seen before. The chip popped out of Hal's brain, and he got up to run again. She threw herself in his path, successfully tripping him. He recovered quickly and threw her into the wall, "You can't catch me."

"Don't bet on it," Jane maneuvered out of his grip and prepared to attack. He picked up a nearby lamp, ready to throw it at her, but she ran straight into him, causing the lamp to hit him in the head—and her arm to be full of broken glass. Being hit with the lamp had left him momentarily unconscious.

What could she use to keep him that way? She shouted as the idea came to her, "the medkit!" She opened her medkit and injected him with a strong sedative, which should work until she could get him back to headquarters--she hoped. This dose had certainly kept her drugged and confused when the team was dealing with a shape-shifter Neuro. Jane sighed, "Andre, you're not going to like this."

--

"What do you mean, the chip didn't work?" Andre's voice got a little loud during the debriefing.

Jane sighed, "It didn't work. He healed it."

Riley started to freak out, "That's never happened before. What happens if the chips stop working altogether?"

Andre reassured him, "That's not going to happen. I suppose, logically, this makes sense. The chips are designed to work with a person's brain chemistry, and everyone doesn't have the same brain chemistry."

"So what are they going to do with him at headquarters?" Jane asked.

"I don't know. Keep him drugged, I guess. Our superiors didn't seem nearly as surprised about this as we were. Maybe it's happened before," Andre shrugged, his eyes floating unconsciously over to Jane for a millisecond before he caught himself.

"We just need to make sure it doesn't happen again," Jane stated.

On her way home, Jane again took out her tape recorder, "So, what does this all mean? Why would the chip work for some Neuros and not others? Did it not work because he had some healing capabilities? Simon could heal others, and the chip worked on him--at least, that we know of. Why did Andre look at me like that? Had they tried to chip me too? And here's the really big question: am I a Neuro?"


End file.
